


strangest night of our lives

by angrylizardjacket (ephemeralstar)



Series: Romance Is Boring 'verse [6]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) Actor RPF
Genre: F/M, Stress, past bullying, there's only one bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 07:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18256328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ephemeralstar/pseuds/angrylizardjacket
Summary: Cate’s 10 year high school reunion is coming up and Joe agrees to go with her, except that she had a garbage time at high school, and the idea of seeing those people again stresses her out more than she cares to admit.





	strangest night of our lives

**Author's Note:**

> Self indulgent cate/joe fic that is neither of the things i promised. i write this shit to make myself happy because there’s v few people who actually care lmao ANYWAYS enjoy (thanks, i will) no smut, but i put it under a readmore because it’s a long one.

Cate doesn’t get stressed, it’s one of the great things about the Taylor family, Joe had found, they’re very loud but very chill, they each had their own outlets for rage and stress; Barney boxed, Astrid worked in her garage and drank whiskey like it was her job, and Cate had her music and her daughter. So, to say it was strange to see Cate frantically pacing back and forth beside the craft services table liked a caged lion, phone to her ear, frown adorning her brow, was an understatement.

“Rowan, this is import-” whoever’s on the other end of the line cuts her off and she stops pacing, squeezing her eyes shut and sighing deeply, “I get that that’s important too-  _listen to me_  - if I find someone else to go with, will you look after Claud?” There’s a long pause and Cate finds herself nodding along, “yes, I know she’d love to come with you, she loves playing with the sound desk-” another beat and her eyes snap open, exasperation written all over her face, “well then  _you_ tell her to stop playing with the faders, I can’t astral project myself to-”

Joe’s fidgeting now, feels like he’s intruding on a private moment, and when Cate finally spots him, finally meets his gaze where he’d stopped on his way to grab some food between takes, her smile is tight.

“I’ll drop Claud off on Thursday, okay?” She says into the receiver, gentler this time, and there seems to be something akin to relief flowing through her as the tense set of her shoulders eases a little, “okay, take care, bye.” And she hangs up, sighing heavily. Scrolling through her phone with one hand, the other reaches out to take one of the egg and lettuce sandwiches being offered on the table beside her, and Joe feels less like he’s intruding.

“Everything alright?” He asks tentatively, and Cate grunts around her sandwich, before finishing her mouthful and heaving yet another sigh, her third in what feels like less than a minute.

“Everything’s fine, just had all my plans for this weekend completely fucked,” she turned off her phone and slid it into the back pocket of her jeans, putting down the sandwich and opening up a bottle of water, downing a third in a few quick gulps.

“It’s Tuesday.” Joe frowned.

“Yeah, and I’ve had these plans for almost a month; just like Rowan to fuckin’ screw all this up,” she grumbled. This came as a shock to Joe, who’d never heard of her ever speaking ill of anyone; everyone in her family, Cate had always been equal parts the rowdiest, and the most sincerely kind, whoever Rowan was, they must have really screwed up.

“And Rowan is…?” Joe prompts, and the tension in Cate’s shoulders cracks a little.

“Claud’s dad; my ex,”  _oh,_ “he was meant to come with me to this high school reunion thing this week but he’s -  _surprise_ \- found out he’s working.” She rolls her eyes. She looks  _tired_ , which is, again, an uncommon look for her, and she pulls out her phone. “You wouldn’t happen to know someone willing to spend the weekend in London putting up with me and and a bunch of asshole private school grads for a weekend-” And Joe’s about to make a suggestion, but she keeps talking, still looking through her phone, “you know, Barn would go if I begged him, but fuck it’d be pathetic to turn up to my high school reunion with a brother who’s objectively more successful than me, and Trid has been banned from all further reunions last time I heard-”

“Wait, why?” Joe frowns, half laughing, and Cate grins.

“At her reunion she ended up hooking up with the biology teacher she had a crush on in her final year, and it was a big scandal because when you go to a terribly fancy private school, everything’s a scandal-”

“I’m free this weekend.” Joe finally interrupts her, and Cate’s mouth snaps shut and she turns slowly to him.

“I- no, dude, no, you’re busy as shit, don’t- no.” Cate’s shaking her head, finishing off the last of her sandwich, and washing it down with another gulp of water, trying to ignore the way her cheeks are heating up at the suggestion, “Dude, you don’t need to do that.”

“Wow, alright I get it, I get it,” Joe laughs, though it’s a little off, he actually seems a little hurt by such a thorough rejection, and Cate’s ears turn pink as she finally turns to him.

“No, I just mean - like it’s a lovely offer, but I don’t want to be a burden and I’m sure you have better things to do with your time, I can find -” she’s floundering, flustered, fidgeting with her phone, and this time when Joe laughs, it’s genuine.

“Cate, seriously, we’re-” he hesitates slightly, “ _friends_ , and all I was gonna do this weekend anyway was lay around in my hotel room and maybe practice the bass for a bit,” he says, and Cate’s eyes glaze over a bit.

“ _God_ that sounds nice,” she murmurs under her breath, and in that one moment, she looks  _so tired_.

“Come on, let me tag along, it’ll be a nice change of scenery.”

“You sure?” She asks tentatively. Joe nods, clapping her on the shoulder.

“It’ll be fun; we’ll make it fun.” He assured her. For just a moment, there’s an unfiltered look of relief that washes over Cate’s face before she throws herself at Joe, wrapping him up in a hug.

“Oh thank God, I really didn’t want to ask my brother to come with me.” She laughs gently, hugging him tighter than was probably necessary, though to be fair, Joe wasn’t even close to complaining as he hugged her back.

They meet on Friday, the day before the reunion, at the hotel in the middle of London where it was taking place according to Cate, and the moment Joe steps into the lobby and sees her wearing her black jeans and leather jacket, draped on a gilded sofa that wouldn’t have been out of place in Garden Lodge, that he realises what type of people she must have gone to school with, and how absolutely ‘fuck-off-wealthy’ that makes her family; he’s actually a little humbled. He’s also never been so grateful to see someone so out of place as Cate. in that moment.

She’s twitchy, fidgety in the uncomfortably fancy elevator ride to their floor, carrying a black duffle bag and a garment bag on a coat hanger.

“Seriously, you can run away now, I’m not going to stop you,” she offered quickly before the elevator doors open, and she can’t bring herself to look at him. Joe’s got his own suit in a garment bag slung over his shoulder, and he can feel the nervous energy radiating off her in waves almost. The doors open.

“Not going anywhere,” he chanced her a look, a half smile, but she just looks doubtful, and steps out ahead of him, “what’s got you so worried?” He asks, and Cate visibly sighs. It’s so strange to see her like this, she’s usually so bright and outgoing, seeing her tense and nervous is almost uncomfortable to witness, and if he wants to help her try and relax, Joe knows he needs to find out why she’s so tense in the first place.

“High school didn’t agree with me,” Cate says, glancing at the numbers on the doors as they walk past, slowing down in front of 2318. She opens it with the key card and when they step in, she moves about the luxurious spacious room with an almost practiced ease, hanging up her garment bag and pulling off her shoes, “it’s a school for trust-fund babies who have more money than sense and aspire to be bigger, richer jags than their parents, or trophy wives, or both.” She flops back on the bed, gazing up at the roof as Joe takes his time putting his things away before moving to the window.

“So are we trying to mess with them or are we trying to get on their good side?” He asks, and when Cate laughs, he can’t help but grin in return, looking from the spectacular London skyline to her, smiling for the first time since he’d arrived.

“I’d tar and feather them if given half a chance, but honestly I’m just out here trying to rub it in their stupid faces that I actually amounted to something.”

“High school  _really_ wasn’t kind to you,” Joe winced, and she gave him a wry smile, but doesn’t disagree. It’s when she sits up, suggests getting dinner, that something clicks in Joe’s head and he hesitates before he answers her; “yes on dinner, but there’s- uh,” he can see Cate’s a little amused by the way he’s turning faintly pink, but it’s her turn to get a little flustered as he voices his next thought; “where will I be sleeping?”

The bed was  _enormous_ , could easily fit two people, could probably easily fit at least four, but the last thing Joe wanted to do was make her uncomfortable when she was already so stressed about the upcoming reunion.

“I-  _here_ , Joe,” she makes a face like she doesn’t quite understand why he’s asking, patting the bed, while her voice is so painfully casual it almost stings, “we’re adults, dude.” And with that she breaks away, scrambles across the bed to the bedside table where a menu was waiting by the phone. “Room service?” 

They eat their room service dinner in bed, and Cate does her best to catch Joe up on any gossip that may be important knowledge for him to have before he ‘ _walks into the hornet’s nest’_ as Cate put it.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not the saying,” Joe snickers, but Cate waves him off, mouth full of pork chop. 

“What _ever_ , dude, the point is, these are the kids of bankers and lawyers and fancy athletes and stuff like that; they’re exactly like their parents, just as awful as they were in high school, at least according to their facebooks, and none of them like me.” She picks at the salad at the side of her plate before eating a cherry tomato and avoiding Joe’s gaze. 

“Are- really? How can you know that?” He asks, tone light, mostly convinced she’s joking, but she shrugged.

“When I clicked that I was coming on the event, I was added to a group chat for it that it turns out most of the rest of the year was already in, apart from like the, you know, the ‘ _weird kids_ ’, the kids they assumed weren’t coming.” The mood is quickly dropping, and Cate takes a deep breath, forcing a smile. There’s a beat of time in which Cate’s smile is already slipping, and Joe sort of wants to ask why she’s even going, but then all he can think about is how good it would feel to rub Cate’s success in the faces of those assholes, and he gets it. He leans in conspiratorially.

“You wanna go egg their cars?” He asks with a grin, and there’s an indescribably relief and amusement written all over Cate’s face that just lights up the room, and Joe just wants to be able to bottle that emotion so he never forgets how damn happy her smile makes him. He’s sort of been thinking that a lot lately, if he’s being honest, but he tries not to think about it to hard; he’s not here to worry about himself, he’s here to support Cate.

“Literally  _nothing_ would bring me more joy,” Cate sighs wistfully before shaking her head, “but I’m trying to be the bigger person.” And there’s a moment where Joe can’t help but marvel at her; if what she’s said is true about these people, she has every right to be the pettiest person in the world, but she’s trying to rise above it, trying to put it behind her.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Cate admits, snapping Joe out of his thoughts, and she moves her mostly empty plate onto the table and flops back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling again, “seriously, I owe you.” Joe puts his own mostly empty plate beside hers, joining her, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“No you don’t, there was no way I’d let you go to this alone.” He assures, and Cate is strangely quiet, her hand still clasped in his. When he looks at her, he’s surprised to see her looking back at him, expression a little unreadable, a little awed, and she looks like she wants to say something, but when his gaze meets hers, it’s as if he can see her hesitate, and she just gives him a soft smile.

“I appreciate it.” Is all she says, voice uncharacteristically soft.

It’s much later that night that Joe learns that Cate sleeps on her side, curled up, with blankets all tucked up around her, doing things on her phone until well past midnight. 

 _[go to sleep]_  Joe messages at about twenty past twelve, grinning to himself. He hears Cate’s message tone go off and he suppresses a little giggle, but is surprised to hear Cate herself snicker, though she doesn’t turn around. After a beat, he hears start typing.

 _[u first.] [hypocryte.] [*hypocrite]_  She sends in rapid succession, and Joe doesn’t even try and hide his soft laughter at this.

_[not tired]_

_[neither am i]_  She’s quick to respond, and she shifts to get more comfortable on the bed.

 _[guess we’re at an impasse]_ He sends, and there’s a long moment of silence before she slowly starts typing out a response.

 _[that spelling doesn’t look right…..] [impass] [impasse]_  He hears her make a little, thoughtful huff, and there’s a long pause before she starts typing again.  _[no you’re right]_

 _[i know 😂]_  He’s shifted from where he was leaning on his headboard to laying on his side facing away from her, and the with the two of them both engrossed by the other’s messages on their phones, in the middle of the night, in the same damn bed, it feels like a high school rom-com. It makes Joe feel a little giddy, a little warm inside like he doesn’t quite want to admit.

They get donuts from Seven-Eleven at one in the morning at Cate’s behest, and she admits it was her favourite part of high school. Sitting at the bus stop outside the store, Cate takes only the barest moment to lament her lost youth around bites of donut, but quickly thinks better of it.

“I eat better because of Claud, I gotta set a good example, you know?” She’s sitting probably too close, leaning against him, but he’s not complaining. The night is cool enough that they’re both wearing jackets, but it’s otherwise calm, even in the inner city. “I want her to be healthy and strong, and yeah like I’m not a hardass, like I’m not a hypocrite, you know,” and she takes another bite, before taking a swig of the milk she’d bought to pair with it. Joe is quiet, just looking out at the street, unable to help the fond smile that was caught at the edge of his lips, “but I miss like, being on tour with dad, god we’d eat absolute garbage after the gigs had finished. Whatever was open late was dinner; there was like a week in Japan when I was sixteen, where I  _just_ survived on dessert crepes.”

It’s little moments like that, where she says a lot without saying much at all, how she’d been afforded indulgences, perhaps at the expense other parts of her life. He asks if it was in the school holidays; it wasn’t. She goes quiet. She leans her head on his shoulder and eats another donut, and they watch the cars pass by in easy silence. 

This time when they get ready for bed, Cate plugs her phone in to charge and puts it on the bedside table, ready to actually sleep, and Joe finds himself doing the same. 

The space between them on the luxurious bed feels like  _miles,_ feels too far away. There’s a beat of hesitation before Joe turns, wants to say something, wants to reach out, but Cate is already facing him, arm outstretched, surprise written all over her face, and though he can’t see it in the darkness, she’s quickly turning red.

“Hey,” her voice is soft, a little nervous, and she retracts her hand quickly, but doesn’t turn away, doesn’t look away, just smiles, a little bashful.

“Hey,” Joe can’t help but grin back.

“This bed is huge,” she laughs a little in the darkness, and Joe hums in agreement, and then she’s shuffling over, propping herself up, “hey I- contact makes me less nervous, would you mind if I?” There’s a little bit of reservation in her voice, like she’s not sure how he will react as she holds her hand out to him, going to lay down beside him, but something in Joe’s heart softens and he huffs out a laugh.

“Come here,” and he opens his arms for her. Even in the darkness, he can see her visibly relax as she rests her head gently on his chest, arms tucked carefully to her chest as he wraps an arm around her shoulders. It’s all very tentative, like they’re both hesitant to get to close, but her shampoo smells like something fruity and she’s surprisingly cool to the touch and something about holding her, even gingerly like this, fills him with some sort of contentment. “You have nothing to be nervous about, you know; you’re gonna make this reunion your bitch.” 

Cate is quiet, but he feels when she tenses at his words. It lasts only the barest moment before she relaxes, and shifts against him, uncurling one of her arms to drape across him and pull him a little closer. He holds her a little tighter.

Joe wakes first, on his side, one arm beneath his head and his pillow, the other slung over Cate, who’s also facing him where she’s sleeping on her side. One of her hands is curled loosely in the fabric of his shirt, and when he moves to get up, her grip on his shirt tightens just a little and she makes an unhappy noise in her sleep. Joe considers his options for a moment, before shrugging and settling in to go back to sleep, at least for a little while longer.

Cate’s in the shower when he wakes up, and she stays there for a full half an hour before he calls out asking if she’s okay. He gets a tentative and unconvincing ‘ _yes_ ’. Not five minutes later, the water shuts off and Cate comes barrelling out clad in a bathrobe and her hair dripping onto the carpet.

“This was all a mistake; I should go home.” She announces, sitting at the edge of the bed. Joe, still in his pyjamas, having not left bed at this stage, frowns as he sits up. “They don’t want to see me.” She says softly, voice so raw, and Joe’s heart breaks for her, just a little.

“Absolutely not, you’re successful as hell, you’re a kind person, and an incredible mother,” and he wants to add something else, to wrap it up, something about being better than any of  _them_ could even hope to, but Cate looks at him and there’s something in her expression, the same thing he saw last night that was unreadable, followed again by a hesitation and a smile.

“You’re too nice,” she brushes off the compliments easily and Joe sighs, rolling his eyes.

“You’re just nervous.”

By the time Joe’s gotten out of the shower, Cate’s got her hair wrapped up in a towel and is frantically chattering away to someone on a video call. There’s a small fortune’s worth of makeup scattered on the bed, and she’s rifling through it with something akin to nervous irritation.

“Mickey, I don’t know what the shit a cut crease is or how to do it,” Cate sighs, and the person on the other end of a video call, dark haired and exasperated, pinches the bridge of their nose.

“That’s why I’m here, don’t worry.”

Mickey turns out to be Cate’s brother’s partner, professional makeup artist and part-time Taylor-Sibling wrangler so it seems, judging by their endless patience and exasperation. It’s a little awe inspiring, Joe thinks as he watches quietly, moving about the room, ordering lunch, passing makeup brushes and pallets when asked to. 

“How’s this look?” Cate turns to him once she’s finished putting a pretty impressive wing on her eyeliner. The rest of her eyeshadow is in shades of rich, blood red and shimmering pink, but Joe doesn’t have time to answer before her gaze catches on the bowl of wedges he’s got sitting between them that had arrived not long ago, though Cate had been so immersed in her work that she hadn’t noticed.

“It looks lovely,” Joe assures her, and her thanks is spoken around where she’s crammed three wedges into her mouth.

“ _You’re a menace_ ,” Mickey informs her.

“I’m  _hungry_!” Cate protests, mouth still full of food, and there comes a secondary voice from Mickey’s end; it’s Barney, asking what she’d done this time.

“ _Speaking with her mouth full,_ ” Mickey sighed, looking incredibly put upon as they moved from where they’d presumably been sitting to join Barney on what looked to be a sofa, the two of them in frame as Cate flipped them off.

“ _Watch it, grub_ ,” Barney warned, and Cate made a horribly gross noise as she opened her mouth wide and showed all her half chewed food. Even Joe, though he was amused, made a noise of disgust at that.

“ _Wait, who’s that? ‘that Rowan?_ ” Barney asked, frowning through the screen, and Cate made another face, shaking her head as she swallowed her food. Joe takes that as his moment to make an entrance, maneuvering about the makeup on the bed to sit by Cate, popping into frame and resting his chin on her shoulder. Seeing who it actually was, Barney’s face lit up.

It was strange to wrap his head around at times, the idea that the Taylor family all collectively seemed to like him. It wasn’t something he’d expected; apart from  _Undrafted_ , he had never found himself close to the, for lack of a better word, source material for a film. Roger himself, and Astrid to an extent, were probably the most distant, but he half-jokingly calls Ash ‘mom’ on set, and Cate and Barney are always there, Barney because he’s in between projects and helping out Ash, and Cate because-

“Hey,” Joe’s frowning, looking in the mirror as he does up the buttons of his dress shirt, while Cate’s in the bathroom curling her hair, “I never actually asked what you do.” The video call had ended almost half an hour ago, and by now they were both a little antsy, getting ready in different parts of the room.

“What do you mean?” Cate calls back, tone blithe, followed by a yelped swear.

“You okay?”

“Burnt myself on the curling iron, I’m fine.” She assures quickly, and Joe goes back to the question at hand.

“Like, for a living, or study, or, I don’t-”

“I’m _Queen_ ’s social media coordinator.” She says it likes it’s the most obvious thing in the world, cutting him off before he can even finish his thought. In the silence that follows, Joe makes a noise of interest, though it’s clear he wasn’t expecting it. “It’s not-” Cate hesitates for a moment, and once more Joe hears her sigh, “okay, it’s almost definitely nepotism, I get that, I’m not blind-”

“I didn’t-”

“No, not you,” Cate gives a humourless laugh. “I  _know_  how it looks from the outside, but I  _do_ have a Masters in Public Relations.” The fact hangs in the air for a moment as Joe takes the time to process it, before his frown deepens, and he’s moving through the hotel room with ease to find her standing in the bathroom. She’s frowning at herself in the mirror, though it’s closer to scowling, and even when she catches sight of Joe in the reflection, her expression doesn’t change.

“And you’re worried about tonight? Cate, seriously-” 

“Stop it, stop being so fucking nice, okay?“ She snaps. Joe physically recoils, eyebrows raising in surprise as he watches her turn on him. It’s as if the air itself is crackling with the hostile energy she’s radiating, tense and angry, though he’s not sure what he’s done to warrant it. “You don’t have to pity me or whatever, I got practically everything handed to me, I get it.”

Its in this moment that Joe sees the way she’s not really looking at him, the way she’s looking through him and projecting her old fears and frustrations on him, and he gives her a thin, understanding smile.

“I think you need some time to get ready,” he says softly. There’s a beat before her expression shifts, cracks and falls, and she turns back to the mirror, nodding quietly and picking up the curling iron again. He leaves the hotel room, sits in the lobby and rests his head against the wall for a  _very long time_.

[ _ ~~Hey Ma Rocket, I need some advice about Cate.~~_ ] He deletes the text before he even sends it, has no idea what to ask or how to ask it, thinks that he might be overstepping his bounds to go to her mother about this. Something about this whole event has Cate acting so out of character to him that it’s jarring; Roger and Ash have told a few stories about her high school days and early days of uni, and this, whatever this version of Cate is, seems to best align with those.

[ _hey so i think cate’s mad but not mad at me but im not sure_ ] Instead, he talks to Barney, who only waits half a minute before just ringing Joe.

“ _I told her it was a terrible idea to go to this reunion. She gets so shitty about high school.”_ Barney sighs, so blase that it’s almost committal as he forgoes a greeting.

Though he doesn’t go into details, from what Barney  _does_ say, it’s clear that ‘ _high school didn’t agree with her’_ didn’t even begin to cover it. More than anything, Joe’s heart just aches for her; she was a  _kid_. He wants to go to her, let her know that it’s okay, wrap her up in a hug and keep her away from the assholes who convinced her that she’d never be able to  _earn_ anything in her life.

“ _Mumma, you look like a princess!_ ” 

When Joe gets back to the hotel room, the first thing he hears is Claud, and without even taking a step over the threshold, there’s a relief that washes over him as he hear’s Cate’s laugh.

“I feel like a princess, sweetie,” Cate’s smile is clear in her words, and as Joe closes the door behind him, Cate looks over and gives him a soft, apologetic smile from where she’s sitting back on the bed, still wearing her bathrobe, holding up her phone, “are you having fun at daddy’s work?” 

“ _It’s loud_ ,” Claud says, and Cate beckons Joe over with a smile, “ _but sometimes I can push the things and_ ,” the little girl giggled, “ _sometimes I push them when he’s not looking_ -”

“Claudia,” Cate says, her voice taking on a surprisingly Scottish lilt as she gently reprimands her daughter, sounding so much like her mother it’s a little hilarious, “what’s dad told you about playing with the faders when he’s not looking?” 

Claud is sulking by the time Joe is sitting beside Cate on the bed, and the moment she spots him, her whole face brightens into a grin.

“ _Joseph_!” It’s always amused him how the little girl would always insist on calling him by his fugll first name, and he’d always respond in kind as it made her smile. Cate grew quiet, content watching Joe and Claud talk and joke around, leaning against him as she held up the phone; she seemed far more at ease than she had for most of the past twenty-four hours, and for that Joe was grateful.

“You okay?” He asks softy once they hang up. Cate hums and nods, taking a deep, slow breath, centering herself in the moment.

“I don’t wanna go to the reunion.” She finally admits, and Joe wraps an arm around her shoulders. “I don’t have to prove myself to anyone, and-” she pauses for a moment, looking up at him, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, I’m actually really glad you’re here.”

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be,” he gives her a warm, fond smile, and she looks for the barest moment like she’s going to brush it off, but it hits her how sincere he is and something in her chest tightens.

“You’re too nice to me.” But it’s not dismissive this time, it’s soft, it’s that same unreadable  _something_ that Joe had seen on her face last night, and she’s smiling back at him. “You  _actually_ like  _me_ as a person, don’t you?” She sounds so bewildered at the concept, searching his face for some hint of a dissenting opinion, but he just frowns in confusion.

“Of course, you’re awesome, Cate.” 

Her answering smile is  _blinding_. It’s as if she’s found a whole new energy, jumping from the bed and tugging Joe to his feet.

“Let’s do whatever; ditch this shitshow reunion and just-” she laughs a little, throwing open the closet, “I don’t know; let’s do anything, everything.”

“In a suit?” Joe asks, a little hesitant, but still smiling. Cate pulls out her garment bag and opens it, revealing an exquisite, red, cocktail dress.

“We’ll paint the town red,” she enthuses, before she falters for a minute, expression falling slightly, “I mean, if you want to, don’t feel obliged or -”

“Oh, I’m always down for an adventure; it’s Saturday, baby, let’s tear it up away from these,” he pauses for a moment, grinning, “what did you call them,  _jags and trophy wives_?” 

Cate is  _elated_ as she swans over to the bathroom to get changed, and Joe pulls on his suit jacket, tying his bowtie when Cate throws open the bathroom door and strikes a pose in her dress. 

“You look pretty damn good,” Joe grins, trying not to let it show how the sight of her had left him a little out of breath. Cate’s grinning and laughing, making her way over to him, nudging his hands out of the way to fix his bowtie.

“Same to you; cute penguin suit,” voice dropping to soft and amused, Cate’s eyes were fixed on her tying efforts as she continued, growing more serious, “I am really sorry I yelled at you, I- this whole thing had me fucked up and I got in my own head about it, and about how fucking hard it is being the bigger person this weekend, and I just thought-” 

He gently places his hands on her shoulders and Cate freezes, words dying in her throat as she looks up at him with her big, surprised eyes. 

“You worry too much.” 

“I have to, I’m a mum.” Her voice is quiet as she says it, expression softening to a smile that he returns easily. 

“Not tonight; Claud’s safe and happy, you don’t need to worry about her. We’re going to go out and kick some ass, or egg some cars, or maybe we just catch some live bands, but Cate?” And she nods in acknowledgement, half amused, “It’s gonna be fun; we’re gonna make it fun. I promise.”

With that, she bounces up onto her toes and kisses him like it’s most natural thing in the world, and he kisses her back, smiling against her lips. Her grip on his bowtie loosens and in a oment she’s got her arms wrapped around his neck, and he’s holding her close, pulling her to him, lifting her up just a little. With a soft laugh, she breaks the kiss, holding him tighter until he puts her down again, though they don’t let go of one another.

“I’m so fucking glad you’re here.”


End file.
